“So it was about money?”
“That’s right. For the sake of a few hundred thousand dollars, Emerson rigged the brakes in the family car and his parents died in a horrible accident.”
The color of her eyes grew more intense, thanks to a sudden pooling of tears. Jennifer brushed them away. “But here I am babbling about people you don’t even know. You must be bored.”
Nick cleared his throat. It was time to come clean. He drew the line at lying.
“Actually, Jennifer, I do—”
“Two specials,” Josie announced, arriving at their table with a tray.
Nick sat back in his chair to give her room to unload the plates. Jennifer was smiling at the woman again, chatting about local politics. When the server finally left, the moment was lost.
He’d have to wait for another opportunity to discuss Simone DeRosier and the forget-me-not friends again.
AFTER LUNCH, JENNIFER GAVE Nick the full-blown tour. The island had been explored by the Spanish and the British in the 1700s, but wasn’t settled until the 1850s. Most of the residents worked in small businesses or as farmers or fishermen. Logging wasn’t permitted anywhere on the island, so except for a few cultivated areas, the rain forest remained majestic and untamed.
As they drove leisurely along the main road that circled the island, Jennifer enjoyed sharing her knowledge of the place she’d called home all her life. It was strange how proud she was of a place that sometimes felt like a prison to her.
But the isolation was a big part of the island’s charm. Though they weren’t far, as the crow flies, from the mainland, the combined ferry crossings meant that it took over half a day to travel to either Vancouver or Victoria, the two nearest cities. And because Summer Island was so lightly populated, even during high season the ferry only ran two times a day. If you were late…you were stuck where you were until the next scheduled crossing.
“Arbutus Grove Park.” Nick read aloud the sign on the side of the road, automatically slowing the Rover’s speed at the same time. “Wow, look at those trees.”
The diameter of some of the cedars spanned ten feet or more. Then there were the arbutus, rare broad-leafed evergreens with smooth dark red wood. This was the largest preserved grove of arbutus in all the Gulf Islands.
“This forest is our equivalent to the Queen’s crown jewels. Want to stop and hike down to the ocean?”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Nick took her arm as she stepped out of the vehicle, and he kept hold of her hand as they settled on one of the paths that promised a two-kilometer scramble to the rocky shoreline.
“Watch your step,” Nick said as they came across a fallen tree in their path.
He was a courteous companion. Charming. Good company. He’d paid the check for their lunch without her even noticing. And easy to talk to. Jennifer couldn’t remember the last time she’d babbled so much.
He seemed interested in all of it. Her happy, carefree childhood. Aunt Annie’s previous life as a midwife. Her father’s attempts to retain his independence, even though the stroke had robbed him of most of the strength on his left side.
He was wonderfully attentive. The only problem was, whenever she asked a question of him, he wasn’t nearly as forthcoming as she would have liked.
It would be exaggerating to label him secretive…but not by much. She decided to try again. “Have you always lived in New York City?”
“Born and raised.”
She felt a little envious of that. Every time she’d visited Simone there, she’d loved the city. But she’d felt out of her element, too. She suspected no one who hadn’t grown up there could ever feel like they really belonged in a place like New York City.
“It’s hard to imagine a place more different from New York than Summer Island. It must seem very dull here to you.”
Jennifer was having a good time with Nick, but she couldn’t get a read on the man. There were moments when he withdrew into himself and appeared a little cool and distant. But mostly he seemed to enjoy being around her as much as she enjoyed being with him.
In fact, there were times, like now, when she caught a glimpse of something more in his eyes.
“Jennifer?” He pulled gently on her arm, forcing her to stop walking and look at him. “Nothing I’ve seen on Summer Island so far has seemed dull to me.”
She swallowed, trapped in place by the power of his gaze. A slow heat started at her core and began to build. The world collapsed into one small area…the space between him and her.
And then that space began to shrink as he lowered his head and wrapped his arms around her.
“Jennifer?”
She could hardly breathe. “Yes?”
He didn’t have an answer. Only a kiss. And while she’d been expecting it, she hadn’t expected to feel so much from it. The wine last night hadn’t been nearly this intoxicating. She went up on tiptoe and settled her hands tentatively on the firm platform of his shoulders.
His lips brushed softly over hers, settling on her cheek, then her ear, then the side of her head.
More, she wanted to demand. I need more.
But he let her go. He turned his face to the side, looking just a tad guilty. He probably hadn’t planned for that kiss to happen. Now he was worried she was going to read too much into it.
She took a step away from him. “Well. That wasn’t supposed to be part of the tour.”
They laughed uneasily, then continued walking.
“You’re sure you don’t have a boyfriend who’s going to punch my lights out for doing that?”
“No boyfriend. Not in a long time. Wait. That makes me sound just a little pathetic, doesn’t it?”
“Not at all. At least I hope not since I’m not in a relationship right now, either. But what about the guy you almost married? Does he still live on the island?”
“No. He never did. It was a long-distance thing and it happened a long time ago. His name was Barry Collins.”
“Barry Collins. I feel like I’ve heard that name before. Should I have?”
Only if he read the fine print in the movie magazines. But surely a man like Nick wouldn’t waste his time with reading material like that.
“I met Barry through Simone. She introduced us after one of her concerts. Looking back, I can see our relationship was doomed to fail. We had nothing in common.”
“But he asked you to marry him. So things must have been pretty serious between the two of you. What went wrong?”
She hesitated, not sure how to put it. Everyone here knew the entire story, but Nick didn’t need the long version. “I found out I couldn’t trust him.”
Something dark flashed in Nick’s eyes. “Did he hurt you?”
“The details don’t really matter. Like I said, it was all ages ago.” Barry Collins represented a period of her life that she didn’t like to think back on. What was the point? Best to move on and concentrate on the positive. That was the attitude she always tried to take.
“There’s the beach.” She pointed ahead, using an evasive technique on him for a change.
“Some beach.” The shoreline was raised about ten feet from the water’s edge and this was high tide. He pulled Jennifer close again.
“You didn’t answer my last question,” he said.
Their faces were almost as close as they’d been in the moment before he’d